Mobile internet traffic rising 'exponentially

Peddlers of the wap is crap" theory may have to swallow their words. New Zealand-based mobile internet service provider wordDial.com reports that international traffic through its portals is increasing exponentially - by 100 per cent last quarter.

Peddlers of the wap is crap" theory may have to swallow their words. New Zealand-based mobile internet service provider wordDial.com reports that international traffic through its portals is increasing exponentially - by 100 per cent last quarter. (Eds: see attached graphic in both Excel and Acrobat).

While overall page views via mobile phones are still small, the dramatic increase from 30,000 to 77,000 in just 17 weeks, has been achieved with no publicity or promotion, says Graham Saywell, director of wordDial.com Ltd (formerly known as Domain Numbers and Navigate by Numbers).

This is clear evidence of the birth of a newly-emerging and explosive global technology. Surfing the mobile internet on colour screen mobile phones is really taking off," Saywell says. European users currently account for 46% of wordDials traffic, with 35% of visitors coming from Asia, just over 11% from North America and 3% from both Africa and Oceania.

wordDial has the exclusive global rights to thousands of numeric .com domain names spelling virtually any and every service imaginable when using an alphanumeric a 0-9 keypad such as news, taxi and doctor.

The companys most popular mobile internet sites are 42637.com (which spells Games) and 3733.com (which spells Free) - the latter providing a range of free mobile products such as ring tones, logos and pictures.

wordDials vision is to provide easy direct access worldwide to a vast array of information, services and products when using any device with a 0-9 keypad. The company has been written up in both Internet World and Nordic Wireless Watch.

You can enter a URL that spells doctor -- 362867 -- followed by .com and that will take you to a portal for medical information. Other URLs include 6397.com for news, 732724.com for search and 9328437.com for weather," explained Michael Cohn in Internet World in his article entitled Seek and Ye Shall Find."

Imagine arriving in an unfamiliar city, entering 8294.com and having a car drive towards you from the nearest taxi stand while the location-aware server sends you the estimated time of arrival and specific cab number," said an article on the company entitled Surfing the Net with a cellular keypad," by Jos Shuurmans in Nordic Wireless Watch.

He also made the observation that, The companies smartest move and greatest asset is that they acquired a whole new, alternative domain addressing system, which allows them to control a range of vertical mobile portal services, and present them in a globally consistent user interface."

The service is similar to dialling 800 numbers on a normal office or household phone. The companys service enables people to easily go directly to what they want when using a mobile phone, by entering the keypad numbers that spell the service or information sought followed by .com. There is no need to remember anything, as the numbers to enter can be worked out on the fly when looking at the handset.

In 2001 the company was judged as offering one of the best potential Wireless Web applications in the Asia-Pacific region by finishing second in Wireless Asias inaugural Mobile Applications (M-apps) awards.

Owners of internet-accessible mobiles can today access information through portals operated by wordDial.

The information sites can be accessed by going to the WAP Services menu on internet capable mobile phones and scrolling to Enter Address, then entering the numbers which spell what you are looking for on the keypad followed by .com.

An index of the information sites can be accessed by entering wordDial.com on the mobile internet and on the internet wordDial.coms website is at www.web.wordDial.com .

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For further information on wordDial.com or to arrange an interview:

Graham Saywell, Director, mobile: (64) 21-503-888; phone (64-9) 444-0444; email: graham@wordDial.com

Colin Taylor, Communications, mobile: (64) 21-485-910; (64-9) 35-99-334; email: cac.taylor@clear.net.nz